ONGC to negotiate with Oil India for cluster 7
ONGC is likely to invite a consortium of Oil India, Tata Petrodyne and Langkawi Oil and Gas of Malaysia for negotiations on the award of offshore marginal fields.
On 28th November, ONGCs tender committee justified negotiations with the Oil India-led consortium for award of cluster 7 on the grounds that its offer was not attractive enough. ONGC wants to re-tender cluster 8, for which the Oil India consortium also bid.
The tender committee refused to change its earlier decision to disqualify a consortium of Prize Petroleum and M3nergy for clusters 7 and 8 because they did not meet the bidding criteria - despite a suggestion by top management. The tender committee said it has no powers to relax the bidding criteria, says a source.
Only the Executive Purchase Committee can relax tender conditions. ONGCs tender for19 western offshore marginal fields received valid bids from only two consortia.